In many technical appliances, a rod is sealingly guided through a sealing unit of a container. This is true in shock absorbers and is also true for rotatable exit shafts of gear boxes and internal combustion engines. The rod--and this is true both for an axially movable piston rod of a shock absorber unit as well as for a rotatable output shaft of a gear box or an engine housing--is frequently loaded in a radial direction at the location of the sealing unit. This radial load results in premature wear of the sealing means and in frictional resistance against the respective movement.